Members of the House subcommittee expressed hope that new leadership at the responsible agency will resolve issues with the National Background Investigation Services system. Pixelimage / Getty Images
Why do federal employee background checks take so long? Panel points to delayed IT system
The Defense Department agency responsible for vetting workers at most federal agencies originally planned to have a new background check system fully functional in 2019.
A House panel on Wednesday examined years-long delays to the IT system that will support an updated background check process for most federal agencies.
“Today’s discussion is not a bureaucratic formality but a necessity,” said House Government Operations and the Federal Workforce Subcommittee Chairman Pete Sessions, R-Texas.
During the hearing, members expressed hope that new leadership at the responsible agency will resolve seemingly obstinate issues with development of the National Background Investigation Services system.
Alissa Czyz, a senior official at the Government Accountability Office, said that the Defense Department, which began creating NBIS in late 2016, originally planned to have it fully operational by 2019 but has repeatedly pushed the date back.
“The key underlying cause of those shifts was [DOD] not realizing all the tasks that needed to be done to deliver that full functionality,” she said.
She also referenced a 2023 GAO report that found DOD spent approximately $654 million on developing the NBIS system between fiscal years 2017 and 2022. The report also found that between fiscal years 2020 and 2022 DOD spent about $835 million on maintaining legacy personnel vetting systems that are needed until NBIS is fully ready.
Czyz emphasized that those costs have most likely increased since then.
David Cattler — director of the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA), which oversees NBIS — said he couldn’t provide an updated timeline but that the agency is in the process of resetting the program. He also said that a new, independent cost estimate would be completed by October.
“We're eight-and-a-half years into a three-year program. We’ve spent $1.345 billion on a $700 million program that was begun in 2016,” said Cattler, who assumed his position about three months ago. “That's why I have a sense of urgency. But at the same time, I recognize that we've got to catch our breath and make sure we get it straight before we move forward.”
NBIS is necessary to implement Trusted Workforce 2.0, a government-wide initiative to enable continuous vetting of federal employees. Such vetting involves regular, automated reviews of an individual’s background to ensure they still meet security requirements.
“Unfortunately, the information technology system supporting the national background check process has attracted our attention today precisely because efforts to modernize it have been so inefficient, impinging other efforts to update the clearance process and to fill sensitive positions of trust within our government,” said subcommittee ranking member Kweisi Mfume, D-Md.
He also argued that the delays have contributed to the dual problems of long wait times that deter talented recruits and inadequate security clearance processes that could miss dangerous individuals.
Responsibility for background investigations shifted to the Pentagon after a 2015 hack against the Office of Personnel Management that compromised sensitive data for more than 22 million federal employees and contractors. However a GAO report published last week found that DCSA hasn’t adequately protected its IT systems for NBIS and associated sensitive personnel data.